Green Options » seasonal cooking

Natural Medicine: Healing Benefits of Cranberries-Seasonal and Vegan Recipe Included

Rachel Venokur-Clark — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:38:18 +0000

Cranberries, the cousin of blueberries, have long been valued for their ability to help prevent and treat urinary tract infections. Recent studies show that this berry may also promote gastrointestinal and oral health, prevent the formation of kidney stones, lower LDL and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, aid in recovery from stroke, and even help prevent cancer. Cranberries are a good source of vitamin C, a very good source of dietary fiber, and a great source of manganese and vitamin K. Cranberries are also a source of polyphenol antioxidants, which are being researched for their possible benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system. Fresh cranberries are at their peak during the holiday season between October and December. When in season choose fresh, plump cranberries, deep red in color, and quite firm to the touch. Firmness is a primary indicator of quality. The deeper red their color, the more highly concentrated are cranberries’ beneficial compounds. When the season is over or if you can’t find fresh cranberries but still want all the nutritional benefits, simply look for dried or frozen cranberries at your local grocery store. The recipe included is perfect as a holiday side dish or throw over brown rice to make a complete vegan meal. Trust me, these are not your mother’s Brussels sprouts.

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Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Earth Day - Food for Thought

Megan McWilliams — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:47:01 +0000

Is there anyone NOT sucked into the whirlwind of earth day hype? Is there anyone that isn’t thinking of how they can get their green on? Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by it all?

Us Green Divas area all about easy does it! If we make earth day more of a lifestyle and simply start by making one green improvement from wherever we are on the big green super highway, sustainable living habits seem to sprout like hearty organic weeds and multiply. Before you know it, you’re talking local sustainable agriculture at your favorite new potluck dinner club!

I started with food. Yum.

The low-stress way of doing this, is to know you don’t have to do it ALL. Just pick one that resonates with you and start there. It should be fun and bring you some joy. This is NOT about adding stressful activities to your lifestyle, but adding some thoughtful and hopefully more meaningful activities to the things you already do anyway.

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Behind Gavin Kaysen: Award-Winning Chef and Vegetarian Virtuoso

Gennefer Snowfield — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:23:10 +0000

Behind the Burner brings us another beacon of culinary mastery, Gavin Kaysen, a renowned chef whose vibrant vegetarian dishes are as notable as he is, and whose unique approach to simplicity brings unexpected boldness to his creations.

Currently the Executive Chef at one of New York City’s premier dining destinations, Café Bouloud, Gavin blends international flair with practical application, and shares his real world tips, tricks and secrets from the celebrated chefs and famed kitchens that he’s had the honor to grace from around the globe. From Food and Wine’s esteemed best new chefs listing to a stint on Iron Chef and dozens of other accolades in between, this modern day renaissance chef is full of surprises, and I had the chance to sit down with the man himself to learn more about why this promising young chef is one to watch. And why he can equip you the tools, the confidence, and the kitchen know-how for carving your own culinary visions. (Your own restaurant not required.)

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Linguica, Sweet Potato, and Spinach Chowder

Valerie Taylor — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:17:49 +0000

My CSA box this week contained sweet potatoes…lots of sweet potatoes. The ugliest sweet potatoes you’ve ever seen.

This is what a sweet potato looks like when it’s been damaged by voles. Pretty ugly, eh? But other than the obvious cosmetic damage, there’s no harm to the sweet potato — you can trim off the damaged parts and use it as usual. Vole-damaged sweet potatoes even store just as well as perfect specimens. But of course a lot of people would be put off by the visual and pass these up in favor of more perfect-appearing sweets. So when you’re hitting the farmers’ markets at the end of the season, if you see some ugly sweet potatoes cheap, snap ‘em up! They’re a bargain, and you’re rewarding a farmer for using organic methods.

I also had some excellent-looking young spinach in this week’s CSA box, and a few onions. I’d picked up some wonderful linguica from a local sausagemaker a few weeks earlier, and I always keep chicken stock in my freezer. It’s a blustery day here in Southwest Ohio, with the first sleet of the season. Soup seemed like the perfect choice. So I made one of my favorite rustic autumn soups: Linguica, Sweet Potato, and Spinach Chowder.

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